Resupply ship hotkey / next ship key?

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jacozilla
Posts: 122
Joined: Sat Oct 10, 2015 1:21 am

Resupply ship hotkey / next ship key?

Post by jacozilla »

I found the list of keyboard commands and hotkeys in the galactopedia. Pretty much lists everything but hoping there is one missing that maybe was patched in and not updated on galactopedia.

Namely, hotkey for next/previous resupply ship.

There is for exploration, colony, constructors, and military, but seems resupply is lumped in with the vast pool of military.

I know i can view them in the ships screen by using dropdown filter for resupply ships - but that is more for seeing not, managing them this way is fairly cumbersome because soon as you pick one, screen closes when you manage that resupply ship. To get next resupply ship then have to reopen screen, which defaults back to defsult list, so need to mouse click resupply list then pick next ship again.

Quasi work around is i open ships screen, use resupply ship dropdown filter, and then pick then select each resupply ship, tagging each one in sequence for however many there are. Then close screen and use existing hotkeys for previous selected target / next selected tatrget to cycle through all this resupply ships i just tagged.

But this lasts only for that one moment and need to redo all over again after i target other things.

It seems so obvious resupply ships are a separate class of ships like explorer, constructor, colony. Is there a hotkey that was added later not shown in galactopedia?
Bingeling
Posts: 5186
Joined: Thu Aug 12, 2010 11:42 am

RE: Resupply ship hotkey / next ship key?

Post by Bingeling »

Personally I find most of the "next-previous" stuff rather useless apart from using next-previous the way you indicate here. It is for instance useful when deploying a resupply ship to get hold of the ship again after finished searching for the spot to deploy at.

The way that I handle them is by not having very many of them, and having few, if no other ships with long range scanners. They are also my only non-fleeted ships sitting outside systems (in fact, they are my only non-fleeted military ships). Sometimes they are forgotten in a system after a retrofit, or forgotten after being built. Their scan circle is then rather obscured by the spaceport's scan circle as they sit next to the spaceport.

When I go "I see 3 resupply ships here, but shouldn't I have 4?!" I use the ship list and class sorting to find the last one.

One option is to add them to fleets with just the single ships, but I am not sure it is much easier to find the "Resupply 1" fleet among the other fleets, than finding the resupply ship among a few hundred military ships.

My main annoyance with resupply ship, is that I can not queue a deploy order. So a deployed resupply ship will always need two orders not given at the same time, if it sits deployed, should retrofit, and should go back to being deployed. I can tell it to move back to where it is (and it will sit next to the planet or in the right cloud), so that I can find it again, but it will not be deployed :(


jacozilla
Posts: 122
Joined: Sat Oct 10, 2015 1:21 am

RE: Resupply ship hotkey / next ship key?

Post by jacozilla »

Omg that would be another wishlist improvement - redeploy to same spot after retrofit.

I hate having to redeploy my resupply ships again after a retrofit (esp with the hunt and peck routine to find, pick, reselect deploy spot, reselect supply ship, and issue deply command again)

Good suggestion re putting them all in a fleet. For easier selection i will have to use up one of my prescious 10 fleet hotkeys but given how much i use resupply ships now, worth the sacrifice. I hope lomg as i kep that 'fleet' on manual, they will operate in manual deployed without issue.

Only possible weirdness might be when attacked. Will have to experiment. To avoid resupply ships roaming very far when attacked, i leave them on the manual stance of engage when attacked, not nearby targets. That usually anchors them and stays deployed. What I'm hoping being in fleet wont do is if one gets attacked, the others dont undeploy and try to cross half the galaxy to come help
Bingeling
Posts: 5186
Joined: Thu Aug 12, 2010 11:42 am

RE: Resupply ship hotkey / next ship key?

Post by Bingeling »

Since I play my fleets on manual, I run them all on defense stance and minimal range. This seems to make sure they have no initiative of their own to move anywhere. Just like you would want for your resupply ship fleets.

There is always the annoyance that the resupply ships undeploys if attacked as well, but that is not that frequent.
jacozilla
Posts: 122
Joined: Sat Oct 10, 2015 1:21 am

RE: Resupply ship hotkey / next ship key?

Post by jacozilla »

Update - its not very useful but fyi the resupply ships are included in the pool for Y key to cycle through exploration, construction, and resupply.

Given the large pool of explorers and constructors for my playstyle at least, it makes this kinda moot.

By the time i am winding down exploration and contructors to make cycling this way short enough, the game is pretty much over and no real need for resupply ships with most the map dotted with my owned systems.
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